Shanksville snaps Shade’s winning streak

January 21, 2008|By DAVE MAPES, Daily American Correspondent

The Shade Panthers’ dream of an undefeated record hit a bump in the road Monday night in their gym as their “backyard brawl” neighbor, the Shanksville-Stonycreek Vikings, stunned them with a scrappy 64-60 win.

The stunning loss dropped the Panthers’ record to 17-1.

The two teams shot 24 free throws over the last 7:08 of the final quarter between 1 plus 1 and bonus shots. Shanksville held a slight 8-7 advantage in free throws made but outscored the Panthers by a 16-9 margin from the field. Shanksville was shooting into the Cairnbrook Crazies during the second half. Shane Speicher and 6th man, Ben Tawney, both scored seven points apiece for the Vikings in the final frame.

The Vikings knotted the score at 44 with baskets from Carter Lehman (7:30) and an underhand scoop shot from Mike Abramowich (7:08). The game had been tied at 2-2 early in the opening quarter.

Advertisement

Shanksville managed the upper hand through the next three minutes and had a 54-49 lead with 3:48 left in the game. Josh Barnes (3:37) and Garrett Berkey (3:01) hoops closed Shade to 54-53. Tawney upped the lead to 56-53 with a Viking basket before Berkey’s hoop closed Shade to 56-55 with 2:01 remaining.

Speicher’s two foul shots created a 58-55 margin, but a 3-point shot by Brandon Kudasik again tied the score at 58. Abramowich and Kaminsky traded two free throws apiece for the final tie of the game at 60-60 with 0:47 left. J.C. Stockenus scored only his second basket of the night with 0:45 when he was on the receiving end of a full-court pass on the inbounds play against the Shade press from Carter Lehman. Stockenus caught the ball in stride for a layup and the Vikings were up 62-60. Abramowich and Speicher each added one free throw to set the final score at 64-60 as Shade had to foul on the Viking possessions.

Shanksville had managed an 8-2 lead early in the game but Shade’s Joel Kaminsky and Garrett Berkey talled 5 and 4 points between them for a 9-8 first quarter lead.

Four different Shade players hit triples in the second quarter as the physical play and raucous crowd took its toll on the Vikings. Scott Sandusky, Brandon Kudasik, Kaminsky and Berkey hit the 3’s to build a 27-18 Panther margin with 1:45 left in the first half.

At 2:20 of the second quarter, Shanksville’s leading scorer on the season, Silas Miller, got tangled with Shade’s Tyler Smith on a drive to the hoop. Miller finished the half with one 3-point shot, but did not play in the second half as a precautionary measure.

Shane Speicher scored four of his game-high 19 points withiin a 30-second span and Mike Abramowich added a buzzer beater to close the Vikings to a 27-24 deficit at the half.

Shade hit six 3-point shots in the first half and added four more in the second half. Three of them in the third quarter helped the Panthers to 11-point leads at three different times. Coach Wade Fyock commended his opponent, “for not folding their tents. They showed up to play. Shane Speicher collected 20 rebounds for them and seemed to find every loose ball. Credit them for outplaying us, they made defensive stops when they had to and scored at critical junctions in the game.”

A gracious coach in losing, Fyock reflected, “We can still achieve our team’s goals for the season of playing for the WestPAC Championship and playing well into the district championships. It is disappointing to lose the game, we do want to win them all, but we will move on.”

The Panthers were up 44-33 with 1:46 remaining, but the Vikings closed to 44-40 on two Abramowich free throws, a Lehman 3-point shot and a Tawney basket with 0:06 left. Shade managed a 17-16 scoring edge in the third quarter.

“Team defense; Shane’s outstanding job on the boards, and Ben Tawney’s contribution playing for the injured Silas were outstanding. We deserved to win tonight.” said an ecstatic coach Robert Snyder.

Shanksville had four players in double figures with Shane Speicher (19), Carter Lehman (14) and Mike Abramowich and Ben Tawney each scoring 12.

Kaminsky led the Shade Panthers with a game-high 24 points, which included four 3-pointers. Berkey also added 12 points for Shade.